Compare
Padre / Terminal vs Photon
Padre / Terminal and Photon side by side — fees, cashback, chains and who holds your keys, plus what a trade actually costs on each.
The two, side by side
| Padre / Terminal | Photon | |
|---|---|---|
| Each buy/sell | 0.8 % | 1 % |
| Sign-up | none | none |
| Cashback | 35 % | none |
| Keys | You | You |
| Chains | Solana, ETH, Base, BNB | Solana |
What one trade costs (buy + sell)
| Your trade | Padre / Terminal | Photon |
|---|---|---|
| $100.00 trade | $1.44 | $2.00 |
| $500.00 trade | $7.20 | $10.00 |
| $2,000.00 trade | $28.80 | $40.00 |
Platform fee only, entry cashback tier. Run your own numbers on the cost board.
Which one should you pick?
On a $5,000 trade, Padre / Terminal is the cheaper of the two. Beyond cost it comes down to which fits how you trade — here's each in short.
Padre / Terminal — Cheapest at volume
Padre, now called Terminal after Pump.fun acquired it, pays the highest cashback of any terminal: up to 35 % of your fees back when you join through a referral. New Pump.fun launches show up here first. The community is smaller and the analytics lighter than GMGN's, but on volume it is the cheapest option on this list.
Photon — The simple one
Photon has been around since 2023 and keeps things simple. It is stable, well documented and easy to learn, but it offers neither a referral discount nor cashback, so you pay the full 1 % on every trade, and it has fallen behind the others on features in 2026.